Supply, demand, and a missed opportunity

The opportunity is still there for those "discontinued" items I suspect.

Except when they are no longer discontinued, they won’t be demand. Besides all the hoarders will need to see them off eventually.

@MartyE posted:

Except when they are no longer discontinued, they won’t be demand. Besides all the hoarders will need to see them off eventually.

Insider knowledge on a Cab3 handheld???

Or more conspiracy theories?😏

@MartyE posted:

Except when they are no longer discontinued, they won’t be demand. Besides all the hoarders will need to see them off eventually.

I'll believe them not being discontinued when I see it.   Ditto for any real CAB3 handheld and not just a phone app.  Besides, having a spare Legacy system or two is good, sooner or later, Lionel will stop fixing the Legacy systems and then you'll be on your own.

My comment on being not discontinued was based on folks thinking that building a Cab2 was still a possibility. I’d hope for a hardware solution but I’m not holding my breath.

Gunrunner John is right. There is still some opportunity for these sales and having a backup is not a bad idea. I myself love the cab2 and honestly to have to hold my phone any longer then what I do now is a thumbs down. If I had to choose on what to run the cab3 on I would go for a tablet as a small phone and fat fingers are not a good combination.  What also helps with the damand is the fact that China has gone back into lockdown. So who knows when the cab3 will be released, And many other Lionel items.

In my mind if they did make a cab3 remote I'm sure it would cost 2 -3 times more then the cab1L. Supply and demand and more computer chips.

I have the MTH DCS explorer and I hate it. By the time I can get the trains running , I don't even feel like running them anymore.

I'm not selling any CAB2's or command bases, I figure I'm set for some time to come...

I keep getting tempted to sell a 990 set or two, but can't bring myself to do it. I mostly feel for the buyers who want to run Legacy and it's a chance to get near what I paid for them. Trouble is, what if I run through them over time and Lionel quits repairing them. They do require some maintenance...lol. I just had a reverse switch fixed by Lionel and while I could have done it (found a suitable switch on line), it was nice to just mail it off and let them fix it.

@cjack posted:

I just had a reverse switch fixed by Lionel and while I could have done it (found a suitable switch on line), it was nice to just mail it off and let them fix it.

Can you point me to the source of this switch?  I'm thinking it's a good idea to start collecting some common parts for these.

I’ll look for it again and reply…probably on DigiKey, maybe Mouser.

When I had issues with the 180 watt brick led, I found the exact switch on eBay. The switch is repairable though, but finding new ones was exciting.

@cjack posted:

I’ll look for it again and reply…probably on DigiKey, maybe Mouser.

Thanks, I don't have one apart, so it's hard to know what to look for.

Well, I think I figured that I could make one of the switches I found work. There are quite a lot of close looking ones on DigiKey and Mouser both. The switch is about 6.5mm by 6mm, thru hole with the snap in solder pins on the outside of the long side spaced about 6.75 mm. The short side of the pins are about 4.5 mm apart. The actuator button is round and somewhat short. Momentary on with a click (tactile). There are four pins but the sets of two on the long side are the same connection. The actual switching is between the short side pins.

It snaps into that plastic grabber frame. The plastic frame seems to be just a spacer. The switch is shown upside down there and actuated by that metal rod with the sort of half round profile as part of it being pushed against the button. I remember now that I was going to remove the switch pcb (unsolder 5 stake pins on the little board) and measure the switch more precisely...especially the actuator button height.

The five stake pins that have to be unsoldered (connections to the main circuit board) are to the right of the picture and not shown.

This is the remote Lionel repaired and there is an almost visible silver dot on the visible side of the switch.

I'll hope I never have to replace it.